Volkswagen confirmed on Friday that Martin Winterkorn, the 59-year-old chief of its Audi luxury division since 2002, will succeed Bernd Pischetsrieder as head of the entire VW group at the start of 2007. Pischetsrieder, whose departure was announced less than two weeks earlier, is expected to remain with the company in a role yet to be defined.
The board left unanswered the question of whether Wolfgang Bernhard, who oversees the core VW brand and has directed a workforce reduction of 20,000 jobs, will stay on. Bernhard is a close ally of Pischetsrieder, and reports suggested Winterkorn's restructuring plans would reduce the authority of individual brand chiefs like him.
German media reported that Winterkorn is considering splitting VW into two clusters: one grouping premium marques, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, and Lamborghini, and another covering volume brands, VW, Skoda, and Seat.
The supervisory board also addressed the hostile takeover bid by German truckmaker MAN AG for Swedish rival Scania AB, valued at 10.3 billion euros (13.2 billion dollars). VW, the largest shareholder in both firms, said it remained open to alternative outcomes in the dispute.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in November 2006, in its own words.